Baseball: Hinkle Shuts Down Seton Hall
March 28, 2010 05:09 PM | General
By Steve Stone for MSNsportsNET.com
March 28, 2010
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| Eric Hinkle |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Junior left-hander Eric Hinkle delivered his strongest start of the season in leading the West Virginia University baseball team to a 3-0 victory over Seton Hall on Sunday afternoon at Owen T. Carroll Field in South Orange, N.J.
Playing approximately 50 miles from his hometown of Ocean Township, N.J., Hinkle (2-1) threw 8.1 shutout innings and struck out six on five hits with just one walk. His performance is the longest outing of any WVU pitcher this season.
Hinkle began the game by not allowing a base hit to his first seven batters. He also did not allow a runner to reach base in five innings, including the first, second, fourth, fifth and seventh frames. The lefty helped WVU record its third shutout of the season, and did not allow a runner to reach third base while letting just two Pirates (9-11, 1-2) reach second base.
The victory gives the Mountaineers (13-11, 2-1) a series victory over Seton Hall, marking the fifth consecutive season that WVU has began BIG EAST play with a series win. WVU swept Pitt in 2006 and 2008, swept Seton Hall in 2007 and also took three from Connecticut last season.
It is also WVU’s first road shutout against a BIG EAST opponent since defeating Connecticut, 14-0, on May 12, 2007.
Aiding the Mountaineers in the ninth inning was senior Andy Altemus, who entered the game with one out in the frame and forced A.J. Rubarsky into a game-ending double play. Altemus earned his second save of the season.
“Eric Hinkle was awesome,” coach Greg Van Zant said. “Andy Altemus came up huge with a groundball for a 4-6-3 double play. It was a total team effort and an excellent weekend for us.”
After four scoreless innings, WVU scored the game’s first run in the fifth. Colin Durborow led off with an infield single, then advanced to second base on Chris Rasky’s sacrifice bunt. Mark Dvoroznak then hit a run-scoring single up the middle to give the Mountaineers a 1-0 lead. Three batters later with runners on first and second base, Grant Buckner scored Dvoroznak on a two-out RBI single up the middle, making it 2-0.
WVU added its final run in the eighth inning. Dom Hayes extended his hitting streak to nine games with a double to right center, then advanced to third base on a sacrifice bunt by Buckner. Justin McDavid followed with a sacrifice fly to right field to manufacture another run, making it 3-0.
Buckner led the Mountaineers at the plate, going 2-for-3 with an RBI. Gyorko, Hayes, Durborow, Rasky and Dvoroznak added one hit apiece, while freshman Matt Malloy’s lone base hit was a triple down the right field line in the second inning.
Seton Hall starter Jon Prosinski (1-2) pitched well in the loss, surrendering two runs on six hits with four strikeouts in six innings pitched.
